Science Journalism: RELATE Update

A report on the RELATE project by Mico Tatalovic contains some useful insights, but also a few inaccuracies. Mico spoke of the need to ramp up the journalistic input, which is something I support 100%. In my briefings, I encouraged participants to ‘explore all sides of the issue: the commercial benefits as well as the social impacts’ and made it very clear that ‘we’re not here to write press releases’. 

By the same token, embedded reporters cannot by definition work ‘undercover’. EJC has co-organised several investigative journalism courses and conferences, particularly in Eastern Europe, but RELATE was never promoted as such.

The main problem was that EJC could not physically visit every lab and be with every group. As EJC is a non-profit NGO, we simply do not have extra resources to give to this project. Still, our partner from Minerva presented my briefing where I could not be present.

Putting this in perspective, there were not two (as Mico claimed) but nine institutes, comprising 15 labs, that took part in Round Three. In some ways RELATE was a ‘victim’ of its own success, mushrooming from three to 12 institutes across all three rounds.

At least two weeks before each tour, briefings with links to other training materials were sent to all participants. There was therefore ample time to prepare and seek more guidance (as many participants did). Very occasionally, technical details on the labs were a little late in coming through, but everything was passed on to participants as soon as EJC received it.

The main idea was to empower young journalists to probe scientists, give them enough time to understand cutting-edge research (several days instead of the usual few hours for a working journalist), and then advice on how to sell their stories.

Because of the distance and numbers involved, this had to be a ‘push and pull’ process. You need to be pushy and entrepreneurial to survive, especially nowadays. Any young reporter who wants spoonfeeding should find another profession. As Maurizio Molinari, a brilliant, blind participant wrote in his blog:

Today was the day of questioning: we visited some of the labs and listened to researchers presenting their projects. I tried to fill the gap I have, not perceiving the images and the surrounding setting, by asking as many questions as I could. I got the sensation that the relation with the researchers will be fundamental to determine our work quality: it’s a kind of challenge getting to understand them and trying to push them to explain very complicated things in “human” ways.

The EJC was involved to guide, connect and facilitate – but the responsibility for choosing the angle, asking the questions, and getting the message across was up to the young reporters themselves. As Mico arrived in Bologna, I was ‘fighting the corner’ for participants at another lab, making sure they were free to shape their own approaches.

As Mico noted, one of the best aspects was networking and learning from other participants from all over Europe. This was a massive logistical task: in total we sent 78 young reporters from 23 countries, representing 40 universities, to 11 cities. Everyone travelled to another country, although two were unable to join because of last minute visa issues.

Over a quarter of those who took part managed to sell their articles to the media. For a pilot project with rookie reporters in the middle of a recession, this is quite an achievement! See the final summary for more details:

 

Posted on January 5, 2011 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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